Episode 70 - Big Weird Sci Fi

Back, back again to the stranger edges of sci fi. We ponder whether sci fi has preemptively shifted to reflect our garbage fire times, or whether our reading habits have just taken a turn for the cynical.

Because of the garbage fires.

We covered:

• Black Monday Murders - Jonathan Hickman and Tomm Coker
• Those Fucking Dinosaurs (I have no idea where to find this, let us know if you spot it)
• Descender - Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen
• Harrow County - Tyler Crook and Cullen Bunn
• Mare Internum - Der-shing Helmer
• Dept.H - Matt Kindt and Sharlene Kindt
• Quantum Teens Are Go! - Magdalene Visaggio, Eryk Donovan, Claudia Aguirre
• The Firelight Isle - Paul Duffield
• Leave Me Alone - Vera Brosgol
• Deep Space Canine - Comic Book Slumber Party (full list of contributors here)
• Trees - Warren Ellis and Jason Howard
• Injection - Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvie, Jordie Bellaire
• The Wild Storm - Warren Ellis and Jon Davis-Hunt
• Sex Criminals - Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky
• Warm Blood - Josh Tierney, Saskia Gutekunst, Joysuke, Winston Young, Naomi Franquiz, Marina Julia, Olivier Pichard (so far)
• Epicurean’s Exile - Leia Weathington and Jack Cole
• Monstress - Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
• Kaijumax - Zander Cannon

Podcast 53: France (and Belgium)

How angry is it possible to be about Tintin, a comic where a boy and his dog solve mysteries and occasionally assert the supremacy of Belgium? Really quite, it turns out. That's right, we're covering the comics of France and Belgium (in rage-spittle).

Plus! Learn who's an alcoholic (it's Captain Haddock, and Roger). Which Franco-Belgian comic character has "bad trousers"? What are good names for the Cornish? We'll tell you. You'd better believe we'll tell you.

Our title music is by Canon Hannon's Ham Cannon.

We covered:

• Long John Silver: Neptune - Xavier Dorison & Matthieu Lauffray
• The End of a Fence - Roman Muradov
• Sex Criminals - Matt Fraction & Chip Zdarsky
• Orbital - Serge Pelle & Sylvain Runberg
• An Tain - Colmán Ó Raghallaigh
• Harrow County: Countless Haints - Cullen Bunn & Tyler Crook (PDF Preview)
• Miss Don't Touch Me - Hubert & Kerascoet
• Tintin - Hergé:
  • Cigars of the Pharaoh
  • The Blue Lotus
  • The Black Island
  • The Secret of the Unicorn
  • Red Rackham’s Treasure
  • Asterix - René Goscinny & Albert Uderzo:
    • Asterix the Gaul
    • Asterix and the Goths
    • Asterix and Cleopatra
    • Asterix the Gladiator

Podcast 46 - Comics Continuity (Where To Start With Marvel and DC)

Do you want to get started reading the lycra-clad adventures that Marvel and DC peddle, but you're put off by the huge gnarled continuity that has built up over the best part of a century? Batman, X-Men, Superman - all have accreted a vast mythology full of plot holes, reboots, crises many and various, but fear not - we're here to help with some surefire techniques to get you past the initial confusion, and to make sure you find the good stuff. Thanks to Tom Howard on Twitter for the setup.

Leap straight to the 1 hour, 1 minute mark if it's just that that you're after, or stick around for: plenty of new things! A series of crimes done in Dave's house! An introduction to homebrewing! Haikus! The secret history of nutmeg! Who could want more? It's a bumper episode!

We covered:

• Check Please! - Ngozi Ukazu
• Fires Above Hyperion - Patrick Atangan
• Descender -  Jeff Lemire & Justin Nguyen
• Aama - Frederick Peeters
• Paper Girls - Brian K Vaughan & Cliff Chiang
• Space Dumplins - Craig Thompson & Dave Stewart
• Sex Criminals - Matt Fraction & Chip Zdarsky
• The Fifth Beatle - Vivek Tiwary, Andrew C Robinson
• Nathaniel's Nutmeg - Giles Milton

The suggestions for starting points:

• All-Star Superman - Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely
• Batman: Year One - Frank Miller & David Mazucchelli
• The Ultimates - Mark Millar & Bryan Hitch
• Astonishing X-Men - Joss Whedon & John Cassidy
• FF - Matt Fraction & Mike Allred
• She-Hulk - Dan Slott, Various
• Hawkeye - Matt Fraction, David Aja, Matt Hollingsworth
• Moon Knight - Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvey, Jordie Bellaire
• DC: The New Frontier - Darwyn Cooke
• Daredevil - Brian Michael Bendis, various artists
• Spider-Man: Blue - Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale

Even Batman knows Cyclops is a dick.

Podcast Episode 33: She Makes Comics

This week we watched Marissa Stotter's documentary She Makes Comics, a history of women in comics creation and fandom. We also run down some recent comics that we've been reading.

I've got to level with you, Lucy says "anus" repeatedly in this episode for no discernible reason. Also you can find out what swimming certificates we each have. Shall we?

This week we read:

• Saga - Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples
• Wytches - Scott Snyder and Jock
• Friends With Boys - Faith Erin Hicks
• I Don’t Like My Hair Neat 2 - Julia Schiele
• The Side Effects of the Cocaine - Sean T Collins/Isaac Moylan
• Satellite Sam - Matt Fraction and Howard Chaykin
• Velvet - Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting, Elizabeth Breitweiser
• Sex Criminals - Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky
• Casanova: Acedia - Matt Fraction, Michael Chabon, Gabriel Ba, Fabio Moon
• Miss Don’t Touch Me - Hubert and Kerascoet
• The Sculptor - Scott McCloud
• Nameless - Grant Morrison, Chris Burnham, Nathan Fairbairn
• Trees - Warren Ellis and Jason Howard

And that Matt Kindt comic Roger was talking about was Divinity.

Podcast Episode 21 - Music

With The Wicked and the Divine out, we look at some other comics that touch on music, or have music at their core, as well as ranting about publishing and hearing about the time Dave nearly had a breakdown in a supermarket when Avril Lavigne came on the radio.

We also discuss different approaches you can take in the workplace when faced with a Phantom Pooper. It's basically a public service we're running here.

We talk about:

• The Wicked and the Divine - Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie
• Phonogram: The Singles Club - Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie
• Silver Surfer - Dan Slott, Mike Allred, Laura Allred
• Sex Criminals - Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky
• The Fifth Beatle - Vivek Tiwary, Kyle Baker, Andrew C Robinson
• Chew - Rob Guillory, John Layman
• Hip Hop Family Tree - Ed Piskor
• 100% - Paul Pope
• Krent Able's Big Book of Mischief - Krent Able

Roger shitting on about poetry:

• The collected poems of Edward Dorn
• Text of On the debt my mother owed to Sears Roebuck

Podcast Episode 17 - Crime

CRIME IS EVERYWHERE. Well, there's a bit. There's a lot in comics too! We take a detailed forensic look at some of our favourite pulp and noir comics, talk about some real life crimes that may or may not have happened. They're pretty exciting crimes! Plus the usual filth and nonsense.

Comics we covered in this episode:

• Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson
• Zombo by Al Ewing and Henry Flint
• Umbrella Academy by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba
• Parker by Darwyn Cooke, adapted from Donald Westlake
• Fatale by Ed Brubaker and Sean Philips
• Mass Effect: Redemption by Various
• Blacksad by Juanjo Guarnido and Juan Diaz Canales
• Britten & Brulightly by Hannah Berry
• Batman ‘66 by Various
• East of West by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta
• Pretty Deadly by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Emma Rios and Jordie Bellaire
• Whiteout by Ed Rucka and Steve Lieber
• Lumberjanes by Grace Ellis, Noelle Stevenson and Brooke A. Allen
• Sex Criminals by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky
• Thief of Thieves by Robert Kirkman, Nick Spencer and Shawn Martinbrough
• Top 10 - Alan Moore and Gene Ha
• Gotham Central - Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka and Michael Lark
• Identity Crisis - Brad Meltzer, Rags Morales and Michael Bair
• Sin City - Frank Miller
• Stumptown - Ed Rucka and Matthew SouthWorth

The Wilkinson Lewis family:

• Yes Hive Overlord
• Music!

Podcast Episode 16 – Myth (Part Two)

We're back on myth this week, looking at comics that create their own myths and discussing 19th century vs. contemporary mythic theory while swearing like troopers. Tell us you get that anywhere else. Liar.

We also set about tackling new some new releases, and generally being terrible people.

• Blacksad - Juan Díaz Canales (writer) and Juanjo Guarnido
• Secret Avengers - Ales Kot & Michael Walsh
• Saga - Brian K Vaughan & Fiona Staples
• Sex Criminals - Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarksy
• Young Avengers - Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie
• Phonogram - Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie
• Chimichanga - Eric Powell
• The Auteur - Rick Spears and James Callahan
• The Black Project - Gareth Brookes
• Just So Happens - Fumio Obata
• Nextwave - Warren Ellis & Stuart Immonen
• Planetary - Warren Ellis & John Cassaday
• Jack Kirby's Fourth World - Jack Kirby
• Grandville - Bryan Talbot
• The Hero - David Ruben

And if you're into actual books:

• The Hero With a Thousand Faces - Joseph Campbell
• Mythopoeisis: Mythic Patterns in the Literary Classics - Harry Slochower
• A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller

Podcast Episode 13 - Horror Comics

There are a whole bunch of horror comics, and we help navigate you through some of the best of the last 50 years, stopping to define horror along the way and make off-colour jokes.

Contains slight spoilers for Adamtine at 30 minutes. Skip ahead if you're a delicate type.

Comics we covered this week:

• The Hero
• Judge Dredd: City of Courts
• Deadly Class
• Young Avengers
• Locke and Key
• Uzumaki
• Witch Doctor
• Adamtine
• Sandman
• Sex Criminals
• From Hell
• Family Man
• Eerie
• Creepy
• Swamp Thing
• Tomb of Dracula
• Werewolf by Night
• Crossed
• Emily Carroll
• Severed
• American Vampire
• Walking Dead
• Hellblazer
• Anya's Ghost
• Three Shadows

That article about sexiness in Young Avengers.

Podcast Episode 11 - The Best Comics of 2013

Holy hell, it's the end of the year. That means only one thing: lists. Here's our review of the best comics of 2013, plus some that we didn't want to leave out so we just included them anyway but talked faster.

Scroll down for the list. It's carefully hidden at the bottom of the page so as not to ruin your listening enjoyment. While you're up here though, why not Subscribe in iTunes, via RSS, or throw charitable money at Music by Programmers, featuring our brilliant theme tune composer Chris Whitworth.

The list:

• Mind MGMT
• Sex Criminals
• Six-Gun Gorilla
• Aama
• The Hypo: The Melancholic Young Lincoln
• The Encyclopedia of Early Earth
• Lighter Than My Shadow
• Bad Machinery
• Eustace

Honourable Mentions:

• The Lengths
• Copra
• Naming Monsters
• The Black Project
• Prophet
• Prince of Cats
• Saga
• OhJoySexToy

Podcast Episode 9 - Kickstarter

It's a bumper episode this week. More comics! More jokes! More interviews! More inexplicable digressions about cauliflower. These people got mad brassica love, yo. This week we look at Kickstarter, and all the good and bad that comes out of it, as well as interviewing cartoonist Lucy Bellwood with her experiences with 2 Kickstarter campaigns. Mentioned in this week's show:

• True Believer
• Cartozia Tales
• The Black Beetle: No Way Out
• Supermag
• The Encyclopedia of Early Earth
• Thor: Godbomb
• Marshall Law
• Mind MGMT
• Molly Danger
• Reich
• Jezebel
• Blue is the Warmest Colour
• Anything That Loves
• Sex Criminals
• Afterlife Inc.
• Oh Joy Sex Toy
• Dresden Codak
• The Authority
• Beyond (queer sci-fi anthology)
• Smut Peddler

Podcast Episode 7 - Women and Comics

The whole monolithic business of comics hasn't been especially great to women historically, and in recent weeks there's been a flare up of tone deaf and flat-out stupid anti-woman statements from some of the biggest names in comics. What can we do? Have a bloody good moan, as it turns out. We also look over some recent releases.

Covered this week:

• Chew
• Hawkeye
• Young Avengers
• Six-Gun Gorilla
• East of West
• Five Ghosts: The Haunting of Fabian Grey
• Sailor Twain
• Yes Hive Overlord
• Sex Criminals
• Chip Zdarsky's Watchmen 2 Treatment (NSFW or anywhere else)

Disclaimer: Alex Hern and Cara Ellison were never at The Spectator. It was the other one. New Statesman. With all the socialists.